Saturday, January 23, 2016

In Search of Noah’s Ark (1976)

Another nonfiction winner from the folks at
Sunn Classic Pictures—if by “winner” one means a ridiculous celebration of
pseudoscience that presents hypotheses and rumors as if they’re stone-cold
facts—In Search of Noah’s Ark
explores various dubious claims that remnants of the Bible’s most famous ship
rest atop Turkey’s Mount Ararat. While beardy host Brad Crandall describes
“evidence” and theories with his persuasively stentorian voice, the filmmakers
use documentary techniques, interviews, and stock footage to make their wildly
unsupported claims seem credible. As with Sunn Classic’s docs
about the Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, etc., the storytelling style is designed
to excite the viewer’s imagination. First, the central premise is broken into
units. Second, outlandish remarks and visuals “support” the veracity of each
unit, with Crandall saying things like, “Now that’s impressive evidence.” Third,
Crandall proceeds to the next unit, as if the previous item is no
longer open to doubt. The guiding notion is that if X, Y, and Z are true,
then the overarching premise (which comprises X+Y+Z) must also be true. In the
’70s, nobody shoveled bullshit quite as vigorously as Sunn Classics.

In Search of Noah’s Ark begins with a
cheaply rendered dramatization of the Noah story. To the accompaniment of
Crandall’s narration, Noah receives commands from God, builds his ark despite
scorn from neighbors, gathers two specimens of each living creature on Earth,
and endures a catastrophic flood before opening his ark and repopulating the
planet. The would-be comedic bits of a chimpanzee herding animals onto the ark
are as underwhelming as the low-budget FX used to depict the ark floating
across an endless ocean. After 25 minutes of this stuff, Crandall
leads viewers into the meat of the picture. The presence of sediment in various
global locations “proves” that water once covered the planet. The discovery of
salt atop Mount Ararat “proves” the ocean once rose to the mountain’s peak. And
so on. In one glorious bit, a scale model of the ark is set upon the waves of
a laboratory tidal pool, demonstrating the seaworthiness of such a vessel. Wow.

Eventually, the picture settles into its longest stretch, describing various
expeditions to the top of Mount Ararat. Using photos, re-creations, and stock
footage, the filmmakers relay eyewitness reports from folks who saw the ark atop
the mountain. Fuzzy aerial photos and questionable analysis of wood samples
further “corroborate” the findings. In
Search of Noah’s Ark is as silly as it sounds, but the fun of these Sunn
Classic explorations stems from embracing the “What if?” dimensions of the
human experience. Setting aside the question of whether or not 1976 viewers
took In Search of Noah’s Ark
seriously, they showed up in droves to screenings—the picture grossed an
astonishing $55 million, becoming one of the year’s most successful movies.

The tenets of their studio operation were pre-production market research and a regional release plan through "four-walling" theatres where they would rent out the theater for the length of the engagement along with a heavy TV/radio media buy.